tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/face-veils-12439/articlesFace veils – The Conversation2018-02-26T11:30:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/911922018-02-26T11:30:16Z2018-02-26T11:30:16ZAfter the niqab: what life is like for French women who remove the veil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207135/original/file-20180220-116355-r2sso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Saliha (left) and Alexia in 2012. Alexia no longer wears the veil. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Agnès De Feo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Islamic headscarves and veils continue to be the subject of intense debate in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/14/headscarves-and-muslim-veil-ban-debate-timeline">Europe</a>. Countries’ approaches toward the burqa and niqab, which cover the face, range from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/17/veil-womans-choice-theresa-may">tolerance in the UK</a> to an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/31/french-muslim-burqa-veil-niqab">outright ban in France</a>. Reactions of Muslim women to restrictions have varied, including protests by some, reluctant acceptance by others and also <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/03/the-right-to-ban-the-veil-is-good-news-for-everybody-including-muslims/">support</a> for bans.</p>
<p>But what happens when a woman who has worn a niqab, sometimes for years, makes the decision to leave it behind?</p>
<p>Hanane and Alexia – whose names are pseudonyms to protect their identity – were both born in France. Hanane grew up in a non-practicing Muslim family, while Alexia converted to Islam at age 22. For five years they both wore a niqab. Hanane began in 2009, just before France banned the full-face veil, while Alexia adopted it later. Once ardent defenders of the right to wear the niqab, both women have now completely abandoned it. But the transition took place gradually and was accompanied by a growing distance from extreme <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2016/07/15/islamism-salafism-and-jihadism-a-primer/">Salafist ideology</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207938/original/file-20180226-120971-17yc4d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207938/original/file-20180226-120971-17yc4d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=372&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207938/original/file-20180226-120971-17yc4d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=372&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207938/original/file-20180226-120971-17yc4d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=372&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207938/original/file-20180226-120971-17yc4d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=468&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207938/original/file-20180226-120971-17yc4d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=468&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207938/original/file-20180226-120971-17yc4d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=468&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hanane today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Agnès De Féo</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>‘Start living again’</h2>
<p>On January 10, during the New Year’s discount sales in France, Alexia and I met near Paris’ Gare du Nord train station. She wanted to buy clothes and “start living again”. In the first shop she bought four slim pairs of pants and a trim jacket. She then tried out some Nepalese clothes designed for Western tastes, including a colourful jacket and pants with huge bell bottoms.</p>
<p>As she came out of the dressing room, Alexia gauged herself in front of the mirror: “It’s really me, I finally feel like myself again after years of being locked up.” With her hair brushing her face, she looked like a modern woman, fully alive. I was impressed with her metamorphosis: it’s hard to imagine that she wore a niqab for five years and was one of the most radical women I’d ever met.</p>
<p>I met Alexia in August 2011 in the context of <a href="https://ehess.academia.edu/Agn%C3%A8sDeFeo">my research on the full-length veil</a> during a demonstration by the Salafist group <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2015/06/10/forsane-alizza-nous-entendions-creer-une-police-musulmane_1326640">Forsane Alizza</a> (literally Knights of the Pride) in a city near Paris. She was wearing a niqab and presented herself as the wife of one of the group’s leaders.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203250/original/file-20180124-107967-1arfh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203250/original/file-20180124-107967-1arfh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=337&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203250/original/file-20180124-107967-1arfh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=337&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203250/original/file-20180124-107967-1arfh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=337&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203250/original/file-20180124-107967-1arfh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=423&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203250/original/file-20180124-107967-1arfh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=423&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203250/original/file-20180124-107967-1arfh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=423&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Event of the Salafist group Forsane Alizza in August, 2011. At the centre is its leader, Mohamed Achamlane, who was jailed in 2015 for criminal conspiracy in connection with a terrorist enterprise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Agnès De Féo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Alexia remembers that time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We considered all Muslim supporters of the French Republic to be unbelievers. We were doing the <em>takfir</em> (excommunication) against those who did not practice like us. We were opposed to the <em>taghout</em> (idolatry in the broad sense), i.e., the state and institutions. We defined ourselves as <em>ghûlat</em>, which means ‘extremists’ in Arabic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Estimates of the number of women who wear the niqab vary widely, from a few hundred to <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2009/09/09/01016-20090909ARTFIG00040-deux-mille-femmes-portent-la-burqa-en-france-.php">several thousand</a>. In terms of even France’s Muslim population the percentage is tiny.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203251/original/file-20180124-107959-1gghw1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203251/original/file-20180124-107959-1gghw1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=337&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203251/original/file-20180124-107959-1gghw1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=337&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203251/original/file-20180124-107959-1gghw1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=337&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203251/original/file-20180124-107959-1gghw1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203251/original/file-20180124-107959-1gghw1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203251/original/file-20180124-107959-1gghw1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hanane, whom I met on the side-lines of a demonstration in front of the French National Assembly, 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Agnès De Féo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>‘The niqab was protecting me’</h2>
<p>I’ve known Hanane even longer than Alexia. We met during a January 2010 demonstration of women in niqab at the Place de la République in Paris and then in front of the National Assembly. She and others were protesting a proposed measure that would <a href="http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/dossiers/dissimulation_visage_espace_public.%20asp">outlaw concealing one’s face in public</a>.</p>
<p>At the beginning of 2017, Hanane reached out to ask me to help her write a book about her life. In the book she’d like to write, Hanane doesn’t want to denounce the niqab, but to tell the story of the rapes she says were repeatedly inflicted by her father-in-law. To her, they help explain her involvement in Salafism.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Religion brought a lot that helped me escape from the trauma of rape. I was 19 to 20 years old when I started wearing the niqab, I took it off when I was 25. The further I went, the more I wanted to cover myself. The niqab protected me, I liked hiding from men. I could see them, but they couldn’t see me.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unlike Alexia, who decided on her own to begin wearing a veil, Hanane remembers the influence of her social circle at the time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We were a bunch of girlfriends and wore niqab almost all at the same time. In our group the earliest was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-shootings-police-hunting-for-grocery-shop-gunmans-girlfriend-hayat-boumedienne-9969144.html">Ayat Boumédiène</a>, who adopted it more than two years before the law. At first everything was normal with her, and then she started to organise gatherings to encourage us to take up arms. It was her husband, Ahmadi Coulibaly, who turned her head – he was low-key until he went to jail. Ayat wanted to introduce me to a man she said I should marry, she really pushed hard. He was later imprisoned for murder. Thank goodness I didn’t give in – I’d be in Syria today.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On January 9, 2015, Ahmadi Coulibaly attacked the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/amedy-coulibaly-paris-kosher-market_n_6444418.html">Hyper Cacher market near Paris</a>. Boumédiène left Paris one week earlier, and was spotted at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/jan/12/hayat-boumeddiene-shown-on-cctv-at-istanbul-airport-video">Istanbul airport</a>. She remains at large. Coulibaly killed five people during his attack and died when the police assaulted the grocery store in which he was holding hostages.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IJTyWhq_w40?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer of the film <em>Forbidden Veil</em>, directed by Agnès De Féo and produced by Marc Rozenblum, 2017.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>‘I felt like I was getting out of jail’</h2>
<p>When France banned full-length veils in 2010, some of the women who wore the niqab switched to the jilbab, which covers the whole body except the face, while others <a href="http://www.slate.fr/story/153005/islam-pourquoi-quinquagenaires-virulentes-contre-niqab">gave in to public pressure</a> and ceased wearing it. Both Alexia and Hanane are different: they say they’ve turned the page completely.</p>
<p>Alexia has even become a fierce opponent of the Islamic veil and Salafism. She continues to define herself as a Muslim but reads the texts with a critical eye. Hanane admits that she has become less diligent in her rituals: “I often skip prayers or make them late. Some days I don’t even have time to pray. When I wore the niqab I was a little more regular, even though I was often late.”</p>
<p>Both say they’ve put aside the more radical texts they once favoured, and no longer frequent fundamentalist websites. But this process didn’t happen all at once – it took several months. Alexia says she decided to remove the niqab on the advice of the man who shared her life at the time. A convert to Islam and Salafism, he was a supporter of conservative dress for women, but nonetheless suggested she cease wearing the niqab:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When he saw my physical condition, he asked me to remove the niqab – he feared for my health. I had worn it to please Allah, but because of the lack of sunlight I wasn’t synthesising vitamin D any more – my health was failing. I followed his advice, but it’s been long and hard.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Alexia remembers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I took the niqab off, I felt like I was getting out of jail. But that doesn’t mean I was released – I still felt bad. It takes years to get by and I haven’t finished cleaning my head yet.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hanane abandoned her veil after the attacks on the French satirical magazine <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30710883">Charlie Hebdo in 2015</a> because she feared for her safety, facing more and more insults in the street. She said the hardest part has been the exclusion from her social circle:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since I removed my veil, many of my Muslim sisters no longer want to talk to me. I find them stuck-up and unfair, because anyone can choose to take off their veil. A few rare ones talk to me, but it’s not like it used to be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For a long time Alexia would put her veil back on when returning to her old neighbourhood in northeast Paris where social and religious conservatism is strong in certain communities. Then she finally changed her life entirely.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My life began to change when I enrolled in a gym, which allowed me to get out of the Salafist social networks that were my only source of socialisation before. Then I got a job and then I finally said goodbye to my past.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And it was at this job that she met the man whom she would marry. He is not Muslim and the civil marriage took place at city hall, an unthinkable choice for this woman who once hated French institutions.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202265/original/file-20180117-53328-1oxp5mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202265/original/file-20180117-53328-1oxp5mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202265/original/file-20180117-53328-1oxp5mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202265/original/file-20180117-53328-1oxp5mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202265/original/file-20180117-53328-1oxp5mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202265/original/file-20180117-53328-1oxp5mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202265/original/file-20180117-53328-1oxp5mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Alexia visits a booth at the annual salon for French Muslims at Le Bourget, north of Paris, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Agnès De Féo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>A bitter taste</h2>
<p>In hindsight, neither Alexia nor Hanane spoke of their “exit” from the niqab as a liberation. Instead, the experience has left them with a bitter taste. They say they were convinced at some point in their lives of the importance of wearing a full-length veil: Alexia believed that she was achieving Muslim perfection and giving meaning to her life – she imagined meeting the pious and virtuous man who would save her from her life as a single mother. For Hanane, the goal was to heal the wounds of an adolescence torn apart by family trauma and foster care.</p>
<p>Alexia now feels that this period cost her years of her life and expresses anger at the propaganda coming from Saudi Arabia. She blames the entire system that indoctrinated her, even though she acknowledges it was, in a sense, voluntary. According to her, the Islamic State benefits from the naivety of those who believe they are committed to Salafism for legitimate reasons.</p>
<p>Even if they’ve both renounced the niqab, neither Hanane nor Alexia support the 2010 ban. Hanane told me recently: “The law is counterproductive. The only way out is by yourself. The ban will never convince any woman to take it off.” Alexia has the same reaction, saying that the law that has led some women to cut themselves off from society and that some might adopt it as a rebellious gesture.</p>
<p>Testimonies of those who’ve chosen to “leave the niqab behind” are rare. The number of women who have adopted it is extremely low, and the ones who then choose to renounce it must often sever their old relationships and adopt what is in many ways a new identity – they change their e-mail addresses, phone numbers and move on completely. For them the full-length veil has become something firmly in the past, representative of a transitional stage in their lives.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Translated from the original French by Leighton Walter Kille.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91192/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Agnès De Féo is co-founder of Sasana Productions and teaches at the journalism school CFPJ.</span></em></p>A number of women who once wore and defended the full Islamic veil known as the niqab later chose to renounce it. Here two of them tell their stories.Agnès De Féo, Sociologue, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/914392018-02-08T14:51:08Z2018-02-08T14:51:08ZHow Iran uses a compulsory hijab law to control its citizens – and why they are protesting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205348/original/file-20180207-74501-75n9iw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C6%2C1422%2C783&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The &#39;girl from Enghelab Street&#39;, recorded holding her hijab aloft in protest in December 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=721DE13YNCU&amp;t=13s">The National via YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Protests <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/world/middleeast/head-scarf-protests-iran-women.html?smid=fb-share">against Iran’s</a> mandatory hijab law – which requires all women to wear it in public – have sprung up across Iran in the first few weeks of 2018. Women, acting individually, stood on utility boxes in public places, taking off their headscarves and holding them up as flags. Some men <a href="https://twitter.com/aidaghajar/status/958301165061591040/photo/1">also took part</a> in the protests. </p>
<p>The government’s reaction so far has been to arrest <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/02/tehran-hijab-protest-iranian-police-arrest-29-women">29 people</a> connected to the campaign against the hijab.</p>
<p>But a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/05/middleeast/iran-hijab-law-report-intl/index.html">newly released report</a> by the Iranian government shows that 49% of the population are against the country’s compulsory hijab law, although the real number is likely to be higher. </p>
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<p>The hijab has an important place in the power dynamic between society and the ruling Iranian regime. During the revolution in 1978-79, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, the hijab became a symbol of resistance and protest against the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah. The Pahlavi regime of the Shah and his predecessor had attempted to modernise the country, but its policies clashed with the religious values of a large part of the population. </p>
<p>Publicly wearing a hijab became a symbol of protest and solidarity against the monarchy, regardless of how religious a woman was. But wearing a veil was not compulsory for protesters, neither was making it so a demand driving the revolution. </p>
<p>Within a few years of the revolution, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Iran-Iraq-War">Iran-Iraq war</a> was used as an excuse to clamp down on domestic opposition forces and to introduce strict domestic laws. In 1985, it became mandatory for women to wear the hijab with a law that forced all women in Iran, regardless of their religious beliefs, to dress in accordance with Islamic teachings. The hijab became a tool for implementing the government’s strict religious ideology. </p>
<h2>A symbol of oppression</h2>
<p>The new law marked an ideological way of governing that continues today. The compulsory hijab law has been used to exclude women from various areas of public life, either by explicitly banning women from <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/30/banned-stadiums-being-woman-iran">certain public spaces</a> such as some sports stadiums, or by adding <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11875128/Irans-women-problem-All-of-the-things-Iranian-women-arent-allowed.html">restrictions</a> on their education and workplace etiquette. More generally, it is also used to exclude anyone who disagrees with the ideology of the regime, who are branded as having “bad-hijab”. Not adhering to hijab continues to be seen as a hallmark of opposition to the government. </p>
<p>The law is also used to justify the regime’s increasing involvement in citizens’ private lives. From an early age, girls are forced to wear headscarves in school and public places. Teenagers and young people in Iran are routinely stopped by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2014/jun/19/iran-morality-police-patrol">“morality police”</a> responsible primarily for policing people’s appearances and adherence to wearing the hijab. </p>
<p>For women it is the way they wear their headscarves and the length of their overcoats. Men are prohibited from wearing shorts, having certain haircuts that could be seen as Western, and wearing tops with “Western” patterns or writings.
In recent years, it has become common practice for the police to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42459544">raid private parties</a>, arresting both girls and boys on the basis of not adhering to the hijab law. Punishments range from fines to two months in jail.</p>
<h2>Going public</h2>
<p>Such violations of citizens’ private lives add to a lack of happiness, satisfaction, and hope in Iranian society. This is something the government <a href="http://otaghasnafeiran.ir/asnafnews/1396/29044/">has acknowledged</a> as one of the many social crises facing the nation. </p>
<p>The protests against the hijab followed widespread demonstrations in late 2017 that shook <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/01/news/economy/iran-economy-protests/index.html">over 80 cities in Iran</a>. Many of the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/persian/iran-features-42592637">social analyses</a> of these recent protests, which were in large part fuelled by economic hardships, point to a strong mood of hopelessness. </p>
<p>The compulsory hijab law contributes to this mood, which is pushing opposition to the regime into the private sphere of people’s lives. It is this hidden opposition that fuels the scattered, yet strong public displays of unrest in Iran against the oppressive forces of the regime.</p>
<p>As the anniversary of the 1979 revolution approaches on February 11, some women are boldly bringing these protests back into the public arena. By protesting against the mandatory hijab law, Iranians are protesting against the very ideology of the regime. </p>
<p>The hijab has once again become a symbol, this time of the ideology and power of a regime over its people. By protesting this notion, Iranians are drawing a boundary for the government: individuals have the right to their body and their appearance and this is not a matter for the governing regime to enforce. </p>
<p>What Iranian society is most in need of is hope – not only as a driving force for active participation of citizens, but also as a unifying force bringing together different factions of the society. The protest against the hijab is symbolic. But it is also a protest with a clear demand, and with the potential to bring together Iranians, regardless of gender or religious beliefs. It could be just what Iranian society needs to restore hope for the future, and more importantly, for change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Moujan Mirdamadi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Protests against mandatory hijabs have a clear goal, and if successful, would be a victory for Iranian civil society.Moujan Mirdamadi, PhD Candidate, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/745832017-03-16T16:52:25Z2017-03-16T16:52:25ZFreedom of religion under threat across Europe after EU court rules employers can ban headscarves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161140/original/image-20170316-10895-1wou5u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wearing a headscarf to work may become harder in some professions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">via www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Employers across Europe have been given the green light to ban staff from wearing religious and political symbols after a ruling by the <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/en/">Court of Justice of the European Union</a> (ECJ). The ruling opens up a Pandora’s box and could disproportionately affect Muslim women facing requests to remove headscarves in some places of work across Europe. But it is also likely to affect other people that display their religious affiliations through their dress, such as Sikh men, Orthodox Jewish women, nuns working in hospitals or schools, or those who overtly display their political affiliations or sympathies. </p>
<p>The ECJ <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2017-03/cp170030en.pdf">ruling</a> related to two cases brought by national courts in France and Belgium, regarding Muslim women who had sued their employers. The women argued that they had been discriminated against at work for being asked to remove their veils – one by the employer and the other by a customer and subsequently by her employer – and were sacked when they refused to do so. </p>
<p>Within the EU, national laws about equality and non-discrimination in the workplace are governed by an <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32000L0078&amp;from=EN">overarching EU directive from 2000</a>, and the French and Belgian courts wanted clarification from the ECJ around how to interpret the law in these cases. </p>
<p>The ruling will not allow employers to systematically ban the hijab and other religious and political symbols in all workplaces, but it does provide ammunition for those who want to ask their staff not to display religious symbols. The ECJ decided that if an employer’s goal is to provide services to customers in a neutral way, it is entitled to request its employees to remove visible religious or political symbols. </p>
<p>But this logic around respecting the neutrality of the employer’s goals remains fuzzy, and seems to go <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21025332">against a previous ruling</a> from the European Court of Human Rights, which has upheld the rights of employees to display religious symbols at work as part of their religious freedom. </p>
<p>The ECJ judgement also specifies that requests from customers asking employees not to wear religious or political symbols will not constitute a legitimate ground for employers to ban such clothing. In fact, the ECJ said this reasoning would amount to religious discrimination. However, in an age where many employers take a customer-centred approach to their organisational goals, this could be a fine line. </p>
<h2>Unprecedented in scope</h2>
<p>The two plaintiffs in this ECJ case were from Belgium and France, countries in which vehement “laïcité” or state secularism already underpins laws regarding religious dress and has led to <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/sara-silvestri/french-burqa-and-%e2%80%9cmuslim-integration%e2%80%9d-in-europe">burqa bans</a>. But as the ruling will affect the whole of Europe, not just France and Belgium, it is unclear how much the ECJ judges considered the implications of their ruling for other countries which do not share the French and Belgian policy of laïcité.</p>
<p>Thankfully, the ECJ’s jurisdiction does not pertain to religious freedom in general, and so the scope of this ruling is relatively narrow and limited to non-discrimination in the workplace. But its ruling is frustrating and contradictory, particularly as the EU was a pioneer in establishing the principles of equality and non-discrimination on religious grounds in a person’s occupation with the directive in 2000. The EU even set up an independent <a href="http://fra.europa.eu/en">EU Agency for Fundamental Rights</a> in 2007 to share good practices and research and to monitor EU countries in this area. </p>
<p>At a time when Europe is short of big ideals and existing conflicts and demographic transformations indicate we need to pay more, not less, attention to freedom of religion and of expression, it does not help that such a prominent international court is unwilling to be bolder in dealing with these fundamental freedoms and the idea of <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/the-new-religious-intolerance-overcoming-the-politics-of-fear-in-an-anxious-age/419718.article">tolerance</a>. </p>
<p>This is new territory for the ECJ and the scope of its ruling is unprecedented. So far, controversies about religious symbols in Europe have been considered by the <a href="http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home">European Court of Human Rights</a>, an institution outside of the EU, because they dealt with issues of human rights and freedom of religion. The ECJ, an EU institution based in Luxembourg, had previously ruled on employment matters associated with non-discrimination and equality, but until now no such case had been brought there specifically on the grounds of “religious” discrimination. </p>
<p>Concerns have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/15/hijab-ruling-muslim-women-religious-identity-european-court-of-justice-resistance">already been raised</a> about how the ruling will affect Muslim women across Europe, whether they wear the hijab or not – at least on an emotional level. Yet, unless employers and national courts in different EU member states come across court disputes similar to those presented in this ruling, then this judgement will sit in a drawer without directly affecting people. Still, the ruling is likely to provide ammunition and political legitimacy to all those across Europe who are promoting anti-Muslim, anti-religious or anti-migrant feelings.</p>
<h2>Britain looking more attractive</h2>
<p>A serious implication is that EU states will now no longer need to create an anti-veil law for anti-veil views and behaviour to be established and legitimised in everyday life – they are now implicitly sanctioned by this ruling. The outcome could easily be prejudice, erosion of societal relations, intolerance, racist incidents, and fear among Muslim and other religious communities.</p>
<p>In the wake of Brexit, the ruling will have only a temporary effect in the UK – unless the British government decides to permanently incorporate this particular bit of EU law into its own body of law once the UK leaves. To date, the government has a <a href="https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/841991503857762304">firm position</a> on hijab and burqa bans that it looks unlikely to change, viewing them as unnecessary and even counter-productive. </p>
<p>It’s therefore possible that after Brexit, the UK might become the only place in Europe where Muslims and other religious communities can take up jobs without being too worried that they will have to remove religious clothing, although this is not to dismiss the existence of anti-Muslim feelings in the UK. In an unintended consequence of the ruling, the UK might actually become more attractive to Muslims for professional reasons than the rest of the EU.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Silvestri has consulted for the British Academy/DfID, the EU, the British Council and has advised other governments and institutions around Islam in Europe, Migration and Religion and Politics. She is currently not receiving funding from any organisation but in the past has received funding from the ESRC, NORFACE, the Plater Trust, the European Science Foundation, the King Baudouin Foundation, the British Council and BIS (via NATCEN). She is also affiliated with the University of Cambridge (Polis and St Edmund&#39;s College) and with the Von Huegel Institute. </span></em></p>After Brexit, the UK could become a more attractive place for Muslim women than the rest of the EU.Sara Silvestri, Senior Lecturer, Department of International Politics, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/730982017-02-23T02:02:09Z2017-02-23T02:02:09ZWho exactly are 'radical' Muslims?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157752/original/image-20170221-18633-1v598vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indian Muslim woman Shagufta Sayyd prays in Mumbai, India.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration has been using the phrase “radical Islam” when discussing the “war on terror.” From his inauguration address to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/06/trump-warns-anew-against-attacks-by-radical-islamic-terrorists-as-he-visits-centcom/?utm_term=.a07b8e15e91e">remarks to military leaders</a>, President Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/us/politics/black-site-prisons-cia-terrorist.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=1">has been warning</a> against “Islamic terrorists.” </p>
<p>Many different kinds of individuals and movements get collapsed into this category of radical Islam. A common one that is increasingly being used by <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/02/elections-france-security-170215090123247.html">politicians</a> and <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/6073/what-is-salafism-and-should-we-be-worried-by-it">journalists</a> both in Europe and the U.S. to equate with “radical Islam” is the Salafist tradition. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/headtohead/2016/01/transcript-michael-flynn-160104174144334.html">Michael Flynn</a>, who recently resigned as national security advisor, was clear that what unites terrorists is their belief in the “ideology” of Salafism. Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president, <a href="http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/number-26/why-al-qaeda-just-wont-die">also describes Salafism as a “fundamental understanding of Islam”</a> that <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/02/03/513213042/trump-assistant-on-presidents-foreign-policy">justifies terrorism</a>. </p>
<p>France and Germany are targeting this movement, vowing to “clean up” or <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/german-vice-chancellor-sigmar-gabriel-calls-for-ban-on-islamist-mosques/a-37036379">shut down Salafist mosques</a>, since several <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-security-idUSKBN15G3OY">arrested and suspected terrorists</a> had spent time in these communities.</p>
<p>As a scholar of religion and politics, I have done <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/politicizing-islam-9780190225247?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;">research in Salafi communities</a>, specifically in France and India, two countries where Muslims are the largest religious minorities. </p>
<p>Salafists constitute a minority of the Muslim population. For example, in France, estimates range from <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2012/03/30/01016-20120330ARTFIG00624-entre-5000et-10000-salafistes-en-france.php">5,000</a> to <a href="http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/31911/MWP_2014_13.pdf">20,000</a> – out of a Muslim population of over 4 million. Security experts estimate a worldwide number of <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/ADC/Publications/IndoPac/Wimhurst_IPSP.pdf">50 million</a> out of 1.6 billion Muslims. </p>
<p>But there’s not much understanding of Salafism, its history and its diversity. In fact, Muslims themselves often have different definitions of what it means to be a Salafist. </p>
<p>So, who are Salafists?</p>
<h2>Origins of Salafism</h2>
<p>The Arabic term salaf means “ancestors.” It refers technically to the first three generations of Muslims who surrounded the Prophet Muhammad. Because they had direct experience with the original Islamic teachings and practices, they are generally respected across the Muslim world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157753/original/image-20170221-18624-16m3tdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157753/original/image-20170221-18624-16m3tdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=448&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157753/original/image-20170221-18624-16m3tdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=448&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157753/original/image-20170221-18624-16m3tdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=448&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157753/original/image-20170221-18624-16m3tdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=563&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157753/original/image-20170221-18624-16m3tdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=563&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157753/original/image-20170221-18624-16m3tdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=563&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reaching Kaaba, a building at the center of Islam’s most sacred mosque, Al-Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blankqo/26512561856/in/photolist-GoPNXs-pW14oD-6ZaDHV-hvKbx-jRt5E-jRt6y-PG1uV-jRt4L-D4ZTvs-CyBaKL-533wx1-3dqdFx-PwSSo-9eaf3Z-9edjsA-9edj9A-9eaeLH-9ediY1-jCMXT-sg9Yh-pGJeXv-darE1-8q13id-fSnrrR-fSnqSp-fSkXJM-ToF8-2fD7F-yxzVTe-cArVN-8Z4vzm-4rdmfY-y7fr1-qHU3e-qJ4FT-7k9fo8-fSkZYr-fSnpzK-fSnoHK-52ucDd-52q41K-52udpS-52uic1-52pXhD-52q1dc-52uguh-52pYE6-52ufLf-52pYvn-52ucYf">Farid Iqbal Ibrahim</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Self-identified Salafists tend to believe they are simply trying to emulate the path of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. This might include an array of practices from dress to culinary habits as well as ethical teachings and commitment to faith.</p>
<p>Salafism as a movement is believed to have originated in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some historians claim it started as a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/global-salafism-9780199326280?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;">theological reform movement</a> within <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6572670">Sunni Islam</a>. The impetus was to return to the original teachings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran – a consequence, in part, of social changes and Western colonialism.</p>
<p>They specifically cite the works of Egyptian, Persian and Syrian intellectuals from the 19th century as shaping Salafist movements. One recent study, however, argues that these intellectuals from the past <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-making-of-salafism/9780231175500">never even used the term Salafism</a>. In other words, there is no authoritative account of how or when exactly this movement originated.</p>
<p>Finally, it is also open to debate as to which Islamic groups, schools of thought and practices may be considered Salafist. This is because groups and individuals who are labeled Salafist do not always view themselves this way. And they <a href="http://religion.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-255">disagree amongst each other</a> over what defines authentic Salafist practice. </p>
<h2>Here’s what my research shows</h2>
<p>The vast majority of people who loosely affiliate with Salafism, however, are either <a href="http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/31911/MWP_2014_13.pdf">simply nonpolitical or actively reject politics</a> as morally corrupt. From 2005-2014, I spent a total of two years as an ethnographic researcher in the cities of Lyon, in southeastern France, and in Hyderabad, in south India. I clearly observed this among these two communities. </p>
<p>Every week I participated in mosque lessons and Islamic study circles among dozens of Salafist women. These communities maintain strict separation between men and women, but I was able to interact with and interview a few men as well. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157754/original/image-20170221-18657-1tk11do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157754/original/image-20170221-18657-1tk11do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157754/original/image-20170221-18657-1tk11do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157754/original/image-20170221-18657-1tk11do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157754/original/image-20170221-18657-1tk11do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157754/original/image-20170221-18657-1tk11do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157754/original/image-20170221-18657-1tk11do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who are Salafist women?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pdenker/10094075635/in/photolist-gnYM1P-icVS6P-4DJqG-8NEWEG-4DWzqi-ptkhwn-9osD3P-ouBR41-49iQxS-qP81pM-3k8kR-6w8PRz-7i3G4x-cbeUJq-raGDVa-6KufRr-bbPwBc-dNubS-B1k938-2EE5tK-Avq4J-85xzWZ-wSA1AE-7rPQxu-axYJRS-6fDoNG-znfxhw-85HC1e-5pKoFm-7xQeWx-odkfuL-fPxGqz-ahr3KF-bRpiQ6-64qbTH-58nCDE-9dAToy-qHghDF-rnFBuJ-92gu5k-kKA5EN-5xfHJT-6fDoNC-5qBSwv-qdG7RJ-8kQRRf-84WVsy-aZnQgD-a9ny1x-quQp7">Patrick Denker</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on conversations and observation, I learned that they actually avoided politics. They did not attend protests or do advocacy, and in Lyon many did not vote in elections. </p>
<p>It is the case that there are Muslim women, including many converts, who actively embrace Salafism. They take up strict forms of veiling and work hard to practice their religion every day. </p>
<p>Let’s take Amal, a 22-year-old woman who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in southeastern France. I met her during my time as an ethnographic researcher on Muslim minorities in France. Amal identifies with the Salafist tradition in Islam. And if we go by the definitions being floated around, she would be considered a “radical Muslim”: She prayed five times daily, fasted all 30 days of Ramadan, and wore the “jilbab,” a loose, full-body garment that covers everything but the face. Steadfast in her religiosity, she also studied the Quran regularly and attended local mosques in the area. </p>
<p>She worked hard to live her life in accordance with the ethical teachings of Islam. This included spending part of her week tutoring Muslim girls in the neighborhood who homeschooled. Amal worried a great deal about their futures in France, since <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/The-Republic-Unsettled/">anti-veiling legislation</a> had constrained their opportunities. She also quietly worried about the future of Islam, believing it is under siege both by governments and by the ungodly and destructive work of the Islamic State.</p>
<h2>Religious does not mean radical</h2>
<p>As anthropologists of religion have shown, Salafi women <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-making-of-a-salafi-muslim-woman-9780190611675?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;">are not passive adherents</a>. Nor are they forced into strict practices by their husbands. Still, this doesn’t mean they’re all the same.</p>
<p>Among the French Salafist women I knew, most were the daughters and granddaughters of immigrants from the former French North African colonies. Almost a third were converts to Islam that chose specifically the Salafist tradition as opposed to mainstream currents of Islam. They were drawn to the clear expectations, rigorous routines and <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11133-011-9192-2">teachings about trusting God</a>. </p>
<p>While some of the women were raised in religious families, many broke away from their Muslim families or earned the wrath of their parents for turning to Salafism. Because the parents practiced a cultural form of Islam, or did not practice at all, they did not want their daughters to wear the jilbab. Despite this disapproval, the women focused a great deal on what it meant to have faith in God, and they emphasized that they had to continually struggle to strengthen that faith. </p>
<p>These struggles included various ethical behaviors including not talking too much, suppressing one’s ego and respecting people’s privacy. Along the way, some committed “sins,” like smoking or lying, and deviated from the teachings by not praying or fasting. Some even <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/20566093.2016.1085245">doubted their faith</a>, which they considered normal and acceptable.</p>
<p>In my research, non-Muslims as well as other Muslims claimed Salafists were judgmental of those who did not believe or practice like them. In my observation, the contrary was the case: Salafis emphasized that one’s faith and piety were deeply private matters that no one but God had the right to judge.</p>
<h2>Diverse views</h2>
<p>However, like any movement or tradition, Salafism is profoundly diverse and encompasses a number of debates and struggles for legitimacy.</p>
<p>So, there are those self-identified Salafists around the world who join political organizations or participate in political debates. These include, for example, <a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/2011/12/20/salafis-and-sufis-in-egypt/8fj4">several political parties in Egypt</a> and the <a href="http://ahlehadees.org/">Ahl-i-Hadees</a> in India.</p>
<p>A small minority, <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/ADC/Publications/IndoPac/Wimhurst_IPSP.pdf">estimated to be 250,000 in number by security experts</a>, <a href="http://fathomjournal.org/fathom-forum-shiraz-maher-mapping-contemporary-salafi-jihadism/">rejects nation-states and embraces political violence</a>. They span continents but are centered in Iraq and Syria. </p>
<h2>Different from Wahhabism</h2>
<p>In today’s climate, however, it has become a political term. This is partly because of its connection to Saudi Arabia. </p>
<p>Salafism is sometimes referred to as Wahhabism, the Saudi Arabian variant of the movement that is intimately tied to the Saudi regime. They share some intellectual roots and theological emphases, but they also differ, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/global-salafism-9780199326280?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;">especially in how they approach Islamic jurisprudence</a>. While Wahhabis follow one of the main Sunni orthodox schools of law, Salafis tend to think through legal questions independently. So equating the two is a mistake. </p>
<p>For some Salafists, labeling them as Wahhabi is a way to dismiss their faith or even insult them. Identifying with Salafism does not mean one supports the politics of the Saudi state. In my research, in both India and France, people sometimes noted concerns about the Saudi government’s political corruption or human rights record. </p>
<p>Yet outwardly, practices might overlap. For example, many Salafist women wear the niqab (that covers the face). <a href="https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/13326/review_21.pdf?sequence=1">Saudi intellectual centers and sheikhs</a> provide literature and training in numerous countries. They circulate lectures as well as money for building mosques and schools. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157896/original/image-20170222-6426-1g5e1w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157896/original/image-20170222-6426-1g5e1w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157896/original/image-20170222-6426-1g5e1w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157896/original/image-20170222-6426-1g5e1w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157896/original/image-20170222-6426-1g5e1w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157896/original/image-20170222-6426-1g5e1w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157896/original/image-20170222-6426-1g5e1w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mecca, Saudi Arabia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/71925103@N00/279803013/in/photolist-qJ4FT-7k9fo8-fSkZYr-fSnpzK-fSnrrR-fSnoHK-fSnqSp-fSkXJM-52ucDd-52q41K-52udpS-52pXhD-52q1dc-52uic1-52uguh-52pYE6-52ufLf-52pYvn-52ucYf-52ueiL-52pZtM-52pZ98-52q3Kn-52q3k6-52ufUs-52ud77-52ugKG-52ugkL-52uiy1-52q4gZ-52ug3q-52ugDm-52uePN-52ugSm-52q3sK-52q3zM-52pYYH-52uhVW-52ueEJ-52q4o8-52q2ee-52pYPM-52q3d2-52q1uV-52q4BB-52pZXi-52q17K-52pYdB-52ucvG-52q2XM">Camera Eye</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And of course, Mecca and Medina are the spiritual centers for Muslims more broadly. In this way there is a transfer of intellectual and spiritual resources from Saudi Arabia that supports Salafist communities around the globe.</p>
<h2>Avoiding stereotypes, assumptions</h2>
<p>Why is it important to recognize the complexity and diversity of the Salafist movement? </p>
<p>It is true that as one part of the global Islamic revival, <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21656189-islams-most-conservative-adherents-are-finding-politics-hard-it-beats">it appears to be growing</a>. And it likely will remain part of the social landscape in a number of cities for the foreseeable future. </p>
<p>But, it is important not to assume that people’s religious faith and practices are the same as terrorist violence. It fuels fear and hatred – like the kind that inspired the recent <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-mosque-shooting-toll-idUSKBN15E0F6">shootings at the mosque in Quebec</a> or the arson attack that <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-mosque-idUSKBN15N2P6">burned down a mosque in Texas</a>. </p>
<p>So, from my perspective, when we hear politicians warn us of the “global Salafi threat,” or if we see a woman like Amal walking down the street in her jilbab, it’s vital to remember the dangers of simplistic (and mistaken) stereotypes of “radical Muslims.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73098/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Z. Fareen Parvez received funding from the New Directions in the Study of Prayer at the Social Science Research Council; the National Science Foundation; the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation; and the University of California at Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender, Center
for Middle Eastern Studies, and Institute of International Studies.</span></em></p>Muslims from the Salafist tradition can often be seen as 'radical.' There is not much understanding of Salafism, its history and its diversity. Here's what it means to be a Salafist.Z. Fareen Parvez, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/702422017-01-24T12:18:14Z2017-01-24T12:18:14ZFrom colonial Algeria to modern day Europe, the Muslim veil remains an ideological battleground<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153945/original/image-20170123-8057-105g1rb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">egyjanke/shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/06/angela-merkel-cdu-partial-ban-burqa-niqab-german">proposed a ban</a> on the burqa and niqab at a conference of her political party in December 2016, she was following the lead of a number of countries in Europe which already have such legislation in place. In France and Belgium a woman wearing a full-face veil <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/burka-bans-the-countries-where-muslim-women-cant-wear-veils/">can be jailed</a> for up to seven days. In January 2017, there were also reports that <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/reports-morocco-bans-production-sale-burqa-170110140716164.html">Morocco had banned</a> the production and sale of the burqa.</p>
<p>Merkel, who has faced <a href="https://theconversation.com/german-election-is-this-really-a-verdict-on-merkels-open-door-to-refugees-56174">criticism</a> over her refugee policy, turned towards a ban on the Muslim veil as proof of her harder stance on integration in Germany. </p>
<p>The politicisation of the veil – whether it covers the full face (burqa), leaves the eyes open (niqab) or covers head and neck only (hijab, al-amira, khimar) – has a long history in European politics. And it often becomes a battleground for different ideologies at times of crisis.</p>
<h2>Fantasies of unveiling</h2>
<p>Throughout the 19th century, the Muslim veil functioned as an object of fascination for European travellers to the Middle East, despite the fact that Christians and Druzes – a religious sect with origins in 11th-century Egypt – would also veil. European photographers in the region produced eroticised representations of women lifting their veils and exposing their naked bodies. Reproduced as postcards, these images circulated across the Mediterranean, constructing the image of a Muslim woman whose erotic powers could be unleashed once the veil was lifted.</p>
<p>But in the 1950s, the veil played an important role during the Algerian war of independence against French colonial rule. Frantz Fanon, a Martinique-born psychiatrist and anti-colonial intellectual, <a href="http://www.csun.edu/%7Ejaa7021/hist434/Fanon.pdf">described</a> the French colonial doctrine in Algeria as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we want to destroy the structure of Algerian society, its capacity for resistance, we must first of all conquer the women; we must go and find them behind the veil where they hide themselves and in the houses where the men keep them out of sight. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fanon was a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front who considered women’s ill-treatment by the French army to embody the whole country’s situation. For him, it was impossible for the colonial power to conquer Algeria without winning over its women to European “norms”. </p>
<p>In 1958, during the Algerian war of independence, mass “unveiling” ceremonies <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719087547/">were staged across Algeria</a>. The wives of French military officers unveiled some Algerian women to show that they were now siding with their French “sisters”. These spectacles formed part of an emancipation campaign aimed at demonstrating how Muslim women had been won over to European values and away from the independence struggle. They were also staged at a moment of political turmoil in mainland France, which was struggling politically and financially to maintain its colony in North Africa. </p>
<p>The unveilings were publicised and presented to the government in Paris as spontaneous acts. But the French leader Charles de Gaulle remained sceptical of the French settlers’ claims, and historians would <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719087547/">later find</a> that some of the women who participated in these ceremonies never even wore the veil before. Others were pressured by the army to participate.</p>
<h2>A form of resistance</h2>
<p>Following the staged unveilings, many Algerian women began wearing the veil. They wanted to make clear that they would define the terms of their emancipation – rather than being forcefully liberated by the French colonisers.</p>
<p>The unveilings had come a year after the end of the Battle of Algiers during which female freedom fighters began to carry explosives underneath the traditional white <em>haik</em>, a form of dress <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/2013/03/22/Algerian-women-march-in-white-to-defend-tradition.html">which dates back to Ottoman Algeria</a>. But once this technique was detected by the army, the female fighters unveiled and chose European dress instead. This meant they could pass through French checkpoints unnoticed, allowing them to smuggle bombs – a scene depicted in Gillo Pontecorvo’s celebrated 1966 film Battle of Algiers. Almost 40 years later, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/weekinreview/the-world-film-studies-what-does-the-pentagon-see-in-battle-of-algiers.html">film was shown</a> at the Pentagon following the invasion of Iraq, in order to scrutinise “terrorist” strategies.</p>
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<p>After the collapse of French Algeria in 1962, many Algerian women in urban areas stopped wearing the veil, but with the rise of Islamic radicalism in the country which led to a civil war in the 1990s, veiling became mandatory.</p>
<p>Mobilisation of the veil against Western systems of thought and values also occurred in the 1970s in Egypt when college-educated women returned to wearing the veil. Among the reasons <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ccFuGe-hBt0C&amp;pg=PA586&amp;dq=Fadwa+El+Guindi+reina+lewis+egypt+1970&amp;hl=pl&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjZgLudidnRAhXF0xoKHRtTCM0Q6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Fadwa%20El%20Guindi%20reina%20lewis%20egypt%201970&amp;f=false">cited</a> for their choice was a rejection of Western consumerism and materialism, in favour of modesty and minimalism.</p>
<h2>A screen on which to project anxiety</h2>
<p>The veil offers a visible, public marker that can be mobilised to emphasise various political and social agendas. Under colonial rule, the veil became a sign that demarcated those who did not belong to the European system of thought. It continues to do so, and has become mobilised within political debates at times of crisis – for example in Germany by Merkel facing the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.</p>
<p>According to Gabriele Boos-Niazy, the co-chair of Germany’s Association for Muslim Women, there are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/06/angela-merkel-cdu-partial-ban-burqa-niqab-german">no more</a> than a hundred women in Germany who wear the full-face veil. In a country of 80m citizens, this forms 0.000125%. The focus on banning the full-face veil is not rational but ideological, with Muslim women’s dress now embodying a range of wider fears around terrorism, Islam and immigration. The Muslim veil has become a screen onto which Europe’s anxieties and political struggles are being projected.</p>
<p>Europeans have a history of portraying the veil as foreign to the continent’s mentality – and this shows no sign of abating. Yet, considering the way Muslim women have used the veil as a way of resistance in the past, they are likely to do it again in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katarzyna Falecka receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>The veil has long been a form of resistance.Katarzyna Falecka, PhD student: History of Art, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/390772015-03-23T12:25:47Z2015-03-23T12:25:47ZGerman court rules against banning veil in schools, but Europe remains divided<p>After more than a decade of legal battles and public debates in Germany, the country’s highest court has ruled against North Rhine-Westphalia’s 2006 ban on teachers wearing religious dress in state schools. On March 13, the German Federal Constitutional Court <a href="http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2015/bvg15-014.html">decided</a> that an absolute prohibition on the wearing of a veil (generally the hijab) by state school teachers is incompatible with the <a href="https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/80201000.pdf">German Constitution</a>, in particular its provision on freedom of faith and of conscience.</p>
<p>But the German decision came in the same week that former French president <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/564950/Nicholas-Sarkozy-headscarf-veil-France">Nicolas Sarkozy argued</a> France’s ban on the headscarf in schools should be extended to universities. </p>
<p>Across Europe, discussion continues about the extent to which the state can, or should, ban the wearing of headscarves or other religious symbols, such as the <em>kippa</em>, especially when worn by civil servants, other employees of state bodies or with public functions, or even by students of state schools. It has become a <a href="http://www.intersentia.co.uk/searchDetail.aspx?back=reeks&amp;reeksCode=SHR&amp;bookid=102454&amp;author=Hana%20M.A.E.%20van%20Ooijen&amp;title=Religious%20Symbols%20in%20Public%20Functions:%20Unveiling%20State%20Neutrality">wide-ranging, contentious and divisive debate</a>.</p>
<h2>Legal challenges</h2>
<p>Several countries in Europe have already <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13038095">prohibited the burqa in public spaces</a>. In a <a href="http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000417977&amp;categorieLien=id">2004 Act</a>, France prohibited the “adoption of signs or behaviours manifesting affiliation to a religion in state schools”, so restricting the freedom of both teachers and pupils based on its <a href="http://www.robert-schuman.eu/fr/librairie/0019-laicite-le-modele-francais-sous-influence-europeenne">unique model of secularity</a> or <em>laïcité</em>. France also has a ban on face veils in public spaces, and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)<a href="https://theconversation.com/life-under-the-french-veil-ban-is-nothing-like-living-together-29120"> upheld the law</a> in July 2014.</p>
<p>In Switzerland and Turkey, teachers and students respectively have also been prohibited from wearing the hijab, and the laws have won the approval of the ECHR. Yet these <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-22643#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-22643%22%5D%7D">decisions regarding Switzerland</a> and <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-70956#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-70956%22%5D%7D">Turkey</a> have been rightly criticised as <a href="http://internationalhumanrightslaw.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/European-Court-of-Human-Rights-State-and-Religion-Schools-and-Scarves-An-Analysis-of-the-Margin-of-Appreciation-as-Used-in-the-Case-of-Leyla-Sahin-v-Turkey.pdf">excessively restrictive</a> and poorly justified. The ECHR used arguments relating to state religious neutrality, the need to protect children from undue religious influences and the right of parents to educate their children according to their religious beliefs. These arguments all seemed clearly insufficient to justify any such drastic limitation on the right of individuals to freedom of religion and to wear certain clothes.</p>
<p>The UK has not remained immune from this debate. Both <a href="http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2007/0009_07_3003.htmlv">teachers</a> and <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldjudgmt/jd060322/begum-1.htm">pupils</a> have judicially challenged some of the restrictions on their freedom to wear certain religious attire, and courts are still in the process of clarifying the applicable law. </p>
<p>In Germany too, there have been some restrictive measures put in place throughout the last decade. <a href="http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rs20030924_2bvr143602">Earlier decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court</a> have accepted that the legislation of the German Länder (states) could lawfully impose a restriction on teachers’ religious dress. Yet, the Court has been somewhat sympathetic to the rights of complainants and conceded that state neutrality did not necessarily prevent state school teachers from wearing the hijab.</p>
<h2>Getting the state out of our wardrobes</h2>
<p>The debate on freedom of religion and the manifestation of religion through dress codes inevitably leads us to consider a range of fundamental rights: the right to privacy, the right to development of one’s personality, the right to equality, freedom of expression and the rights of minorities. Others have <a href="http://www.hartpub.co.uk/BookDetails.aspx?ISBN=9781841136523">considered these issues</a> within a wider discussion on the rights of parents, children, teachers and minorities, as well as on crucial aspects of national identity, multiculturalism, Islamophobia, secularism and liberalism.</p>
<p>These debates betray very clear – often narrow – understandings of <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415533362/">individual autonomy</a>, gender equality and religion. Many restrictions are justified within <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138805170/">current preoccupations with global security</a>, which can inevitably lead to even greater social tensions and limitations to individual rights. This is particularly relevant in educational contexts, where children should learn to respect differences and cherish diversity, rather than to fear and hate “the Other”.</p>
<p>“State neutrality” should not be used as an excuse for inactivity, as German lawyers <a href="https://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdfs/Vol08No02/PDF_Vol_08_No_02_143-152_Articles_Augsberg_Ladeur.pdf">Karl-Heinz Ladeur and Ino Augsberg</a> have already argued. Prohibiting the burqa in public spaces may well be necessary for public security reasons as authorities need to be able to identify individuals. Yet banning religious symbols in the public arena altogether would be inappropriate as well, and should not be carried out on the basis of any model of secularism or neutrality. A more balanced and nuanced legal framework needs to be achieved.</p>
<h2>Long live multiculturalism</h2>
<p>Not long ago British prime minister, <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130109092234/http:/number10.gov.uk/news/pms-speech-at-munich-security-conference/">David Cameron</a>, and the German chancellor, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11562477">Angela Merkel</a>, announced the failure of multiculturalism. Now this recent German court decision seems to be telling society that it has to keep trying: giving up on multiculturalism is not an option. </p>
<p>Only time will tell whether the decision will have an impact across borders and whether this approach will be emulated in other European countries. This would undoubtedly represent a welcome sea change, doing away with pointless restrictions on religious freedom and extreme models of secularism. Hopefully, multiculturalism is not dead yet – and will not be for a long time to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nuno Ferreira does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Banning teachers from wearing the veil at school is incompatible with the German constitution.Nuno Ferreira, Senior lecturer in law, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/316282014-09-22T00:05:45Z2014-09-22T00:05:45ZBanning the burqa is not the answer to fears about public safety<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burqa">burqa</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niq%C4%81b">niqab</a> are often viewed as symbols of extremism. In the wake of the rise of Islamic State, it is unsurprising, therefore, that in recent days a number of Australian politicians have called for their banning. </p>
<p>Reverend <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/christian-democrat-rev-fred-nile-again-moves-to-ban-burqa-in-nsw/story-e6frgczx-1227055228568">Fred Nile has already introduced</a> the Summary Offences Amendment (<a href="http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/131a07fa4b8a041cca256e610012de17/faf88f7a5826ee80ca257d4e001e3eb2?OpenDocument">Full-face Coverings Prohibition</a>) Bill 2014 (NSW) into the New South Wales parliament which, if passed, will ban the wearing of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-23/why-do-muslim-women-wear-a-burka-niqab-or-hijab/5761510">various face coverings</a> in public. The Bill does not refer to Muslims, Islam, the burqa or niqab. <a href="http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LC20140911019?open&amp;refNavID=HA8_1">Comments by Nile</a> clearly indicate, however, that the law is designed to target Islamic face veils. </p>
<p>While the proposed ban, if passed, would affect only a small number of women, it would force them to make unenviable choice. Obey the law and deny their faith. Obey their faith and risk criminal charges. Stay at home and become isolated from the community. </p>
<p>Government senator Cory Bernardi and Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie have also called for the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-18/cory-bernardi-renews-call-for-burqa-ban/5752784">burqa to be banned</a>. In a <a href="https://twitter.com/corybernardi/status/512381674881949696">tweet</a> Bernardi linked recent raids on suspected terrorists to the burqa, claiming that burqa wearers had been found in several of the houses raided.</p>
<p>Nile made three arguments in support of his legislative ban. First, several European countries have banned face coverings in public or are considering such a ban. Second, criminals and terrorists can use face coverings such as the burqa and niqab to hide their identities. Third, women are forced to wear the Islamic face veil by their families and religion. </p>
<p>This is not the first time Nile has tried to ban face coverings. In <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/d2117e6bba4ab3ebca256e68000a0ae2/1b106ecb7420c2a8ca2576d50003dfa6?OpenDocument">2010</a> and <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/d2117e6bba4ab3ebca256e68000a0ae2/e4056a30b3319309ca2578860029c6ee?OpenDocument">2011</a> he unsuccessfully introduced similar Bills. There are two key differences between then and now: the handing down of the <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-145466#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-145466%22%5D%7D">European Court of Human Rights’ decision</a> on the French burqa ban and the rise of Islamic State. </p>
<p>In July this year, the European Court of Human Rights upheld France’s ban on face coverings in public. The court found that the ban impinged upon the freedom of religion of Muslim women. However, it found that the ban was permissible to promote the minimum requirements of life in society or living together (<em>le vivre ensemble</em>). The decision has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/french-burqa-ban-upheld-a-victory-for-democracy-and-a-setback-for-human-rights-28784">heavily criticised</a>.</p>
<h2>Blowing the dog whistle</h2>
<p>While the court ultimately found that the ban was permissible, it rejected a number of arguments put forward in support of the ban. This includes those relied upon by Nile. </p>
<p>His arguments rests heavily on the assertion that a ban on face veils is necessary to protect public safety. He has explicitly linked this latest push to ban the burqa to the rise of Islamic State.</p>
<p>Criminals and terrorists can and do use face coverings to hide their identities. However, a blanket ban is not the only solution. <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/burka-laws-ready-for-nsw/story-e6frg6nf-1226117944473?nk=6d6787f7169e4b0ae1feee15be5d1f1b">New South Wales</a>, the <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/act-assembly-passes-laws-to-force-removal-of-burqas-20120320-1vi7j.html">Australian Capital Territory</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/wa-parliament-passes-new-burqa-law/story-fn59niix-1226751339897">Western Australia</a> have all passed laws dealing with face coverings in public.</p>
<p>Police have been given the power to request a person remove their face covering for the purposes of checking their identity. This is a proportionate and sensible approach. Face veils can, in certain circumstances, impede identification and pose a security risk. However, there is no security threat from women wearing the burqa while having coffee at their favourite café. </p>
<p>While some supporters of Islamic State may wear the burqa, it does not necessarily follow that the two issues are linked. The attempts by Nile, Bernardi and Lambie to draw a link are little more than a dog whistle to the frightened and intolerant. </p>
<p>The direct security threat posed the face veil is very low. Only <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/2071.0main+features902012-2013">2.2%</a> of the population is Muslim. An even smaller fraction wear the face veil. Only <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/burqa-bandit-in-armed-cash-grab-20100506-ub1r.html">one instance</a> of the burqa being used as a disguise in the commission of a crime has been recorded in Australia.</p>
<h2>Tolerance is a source of strength</h2>
<p>While fighters returning from overseas conflicts, including those fighting for Islamic State, do <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-blocked-from-returning-home-where-will-australias-jihadists-go-31289">pose a security threat</a>, banning face coverings is little more than a knee-jerk reaction. Such a ban is more likely to inflame tensions within Australia’s Muslim community. </p>
<p>Lambie argued that <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-19/jacqui-lambie-calls-for-ban-on-burkas-in-public/5756136">the burqa should be banned</a> because:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The burkas are obviously designed by men who have an obsessive need to have extreme control and power over women.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, the European Court of Human Rights rejected the argument that a ban on the burqa was necessary to promote equality between men and women. The court commented that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… A State Party cannot invoke gender equality in order to ban a practice that is defended by women.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The applicant in that case strongly asserted that wearing the face veil was her choice. That she, along with many other women, chose to wear the face covering as a sign of devotion and even empowerment. </p>
<p>Even if some women are forced to wear the face veil, a ban is not the best solution. Banning the face veil will not result in oppressed women throwing off their veils and revelling in their new-found freedom. Instead, the more likely result is their exclusion from society as their oppressors force them to remain at home.</p>
<p>Rather than encouraging tolerance, pluralism and respect, a ban on the burqa simply removes the face veil from the public. Studies conducted in <a href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/france-s-burqa-ban-enforcing-not-solving-inequality">France</a> and <a href="http://www.ugent.be/re/publiekrecht/en/research/human-rights/faceveil.pdf">Belgium</a> point to an increase in intolerance, even violence, towards women wearing face veils after the introduction of the ban in those countries. </p>
<p>Instead of following France and Belgium, Australia should continue to seek measures to accommodate a diverse range of religious expressions. </p>
<p>Rather than feeling uncomfortable when seeing a veiled woman, Australians should feel proud. Our society is tolerant and open-minded enough for a diverse range of religious beliefs and practices, which includes wearing the burqa and niqab.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renae Barker is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Muslim States and Societies </span></em></p>The burqa and niqab are often viewed as symbols of extremism. In the wake of the rise of Islamic State, it is unsurprising, therefore, that in recent days a number of Australian politicians have called…Renae Barker, Lecturer in Law , University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.